Tuition Fees are ‘not a major issue’

Stuart Thomson, President of the Students’ Union, has attracted controversy with recent comments concerning tuition fees. In an interview with RaW News, he said: “I don‘t think [tuition fees] are a major issue this year”.

Thomson said that the fees were “here to stay” and that Andy Glyde, Governance and Finance Officer for the Students’ Union, would shortly be presenting a motion to the Union Council to change the official Union stance on tuition fees from advocating abolition to merely keeping the present cap.

He clarified his stance to the _Boar_ by stating that keeping the cap was ‘more sensible’ than trying to get the Government to get rid of tuition fees which he said would ‘never’ happen, adding that a current focus on keeping the cap would be misplaced as the government is unlikely to make amendments to this policy over the next two years.

Furthermore, the Union has backtracked on their promise to secure £500,000 of funding for the new Media Centre, which is likely to be reduced to a figure around £300,000 as consultation with media societies takes place shortly.

In the first edition of the Boar this year, Tommo made clear that a big goal for him would be to achieve £500,000 for the new Media Centre. Now he says that while in a ‘dream’ situation the centre would have £500,000 worth of new equipment it was now more likely to cost around £300,000 with new equipment being bought over several years.

Tommo further explained that while a reduced deficit was planned for the next year, the Union was running out of reserves. In 2007, the Union ran a deficit of nearly £100,000 which trebled in 2008 to £300,000 and is predicted to be for 2009 around £750,000.

While the President was confident that the Union would run a surplus once the building work was completed and that a deficit had been planned next year for some time, he did confirm that the Union would need to start running a surplus within the next two years or else it may become financially vulnerable.

Fears for the future of the Union have been growing for some time with the Union Rebuild and declining bar trends, however the President was not concerned that the credit crunch would catch students off guard.

The President of the Students’ Union also discussed the ‘protest that never was’ as it has been dubbed in some quarters, where students stood up and raised their hands in response to a speech made by Tommo.

In response to comments made by the Vice Chancellor, he said that it would have been more effective had the Vice Chancellor actually been there to witness it. According to the President, the Vice Chancellor left the TES immediately after his speech and thus was not able to see the protest, however Tommo believed that the message had got through as a senior registrar was present as students made their feelings known.

This year, Tommo made clear that a big goal for him would be to achieve a £500,000 new Media Centre a figure which he stressed several times. Now he says that while in a ‘dream’ situation the centre would have £500,000 worth of new equipment it was now more likely to cost around £300,000 with new equipment being bought over several years.

When pressed to answer whether this would mean cut backs on facilities for media societies, Tommo was clear that he did not believe that would be the case stating that the ‘space’ was the most important issue.